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Nuclear powered spacecraft get NASA budget boost

5 February 2002

By Catherine Zandonella

The proposed 2003 budget for NASA was announced on Monday and would direct &dollar;125 million to a new program in nuclear powered space exploration, while cutting funds for human spaceflight and axing missions to Pluto and Jupiter’s moon Europa.

The budget, part of the US national budget request submitted to Congress by President George W. Bush, asks for &dollar;15 billion, a 1.4 per cent increase from 2002.

NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who previously served as Bush’s deputy budget director, said the budget reflects the agency’s “fundamental mandate to advance aeronautics and aerospace science”.

The budget places greater emphasis on science and technology research and less on the financially troubled human space flight program. A White House review used the term “ineffective” to describe the International Space Station, the space shuttle safety upgrades program, and the proposed Outer Planets mission to the Pluto-Kuiper Belt and Europa.

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The ISS is 60 per cent over budget and will be scaled back if NASA cannot demonstrate needed reforms within the next two years. The space shuttle upgrades program faces a loss of &dollar;65 million of its &dollar;3.3 billion budget, and NASA has stated its intention to eventually outsource the running of the shuttles to private companies.

The budget calls for complete scrapping of the Pluto mission, as it did last year, but at that time Congress revived it by earmarking funds.

Double speed

Instead, more money will pour into a new program called New Frontiers, which for the first time in years will focus on the development of nuclear propulsion technologies.

Nuclear propulsion would allow spacecraft “to reach targets in half the time it would take using today’s propulsion systems,” according to a document provided by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. However, safety issues are sure to concern some.

The Mars Smart Lander/Mobile Laboratory mission, originally slated for launch in 2007, will be delayed to 2009 to allow inclusion of nuclear power, which NASA says will extend its science operations from several months to several years.

Congress has several months to approve the budget, which will go into effect on 1 October 2002.